Cotton-cleaner.



Patented Oct. 28, 1913.

APPLBBY.

ON CLEANER. N FILED Nv.17, 1911.

JQ F.

GOTT

Patented 0015.28, 1913.

3 SHEETS-'SHEET Z.

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COTTON CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 17, 1911.

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J. F. APPLEBY,

COTTON CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED mm1?, 1911.

Patented Oct. 28, 1913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

curan srarns' PATENT orricn JOHN F. APPLEBY, OF DAVENPORT, IOWA,ASSIG-NOR TO WESTERN IMPLEMENT & MOTOR COMPANY, OF DAVENPORT, IOWA, ACORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

COTTON-CLEANER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented oet. es, 1913.

Application led November 17, 1911. Serial No. 660,852.

To all fio/wm t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOHN F. ArrLnY, citizen of the United States,residing at Davenport, in the county of Scott and State of Iowa, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Cotton-Cleaners, of

which the following is a full, clear, concise,

and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to cotton cleaners and has for its object theprovision of mechanism for treating the cotton as it comes from thefield and separating foreign material therefrom so that the cotton maybe cleaned preparatory to the ginning process.

The machine of my invention includes a passage way, two of whoseopposite Walls converge toward the exit of the passage way, the cottonto be cleaned being fed into the tapered cotton receiving passage way atits wider end and encountering moving cleaning devices projecting fromone of the convergingwalls of the passage way and which operate upon thecotton deposited into the passage to remove the tufts of cotton with theseed clinging thereto and permitting the leaves and other coarse foreignmatter to become separated from the cotton. lhese cleaning devicesarevdesirably in the form of short and sharp wire teeth which arepreferably caused to travel in a direction opposite to that in which thematerial operated upon is being passed. These teeth project from one ofthe aforesaid walls of the passage and, in the preferred embodiment ofthe invention, the wall from which these teeth project is in the form ofa stretch of a belt carrying the teeth. rIhe belt, which is thus in thenature of a carding belt, is endless and is caused to travel so as tocarry the teeth bodily through the passage way in the general directionwhich has been described, the carding teeth thus being constantlyreplaced in the passage way by other carding teeth so that the cottonabstracted thereby may be carried from the passage way and fresh cottonabstracting teeth may replace the loaded teeth. In the preferredembodiment of the invention the wall of the passage way opposite to thewall from which the carding teeth project also travels, but in anopposite direction to that in which the carding teeth travel so that thecoarser material may be passed from the passage way.

I do not wish to be limited, however, to the movement of the wall whichis opposite the wall that is provided with the carding teeth.

I will explain my invention more fully by reference to the accompanyingdrawing showing' the preferred embodiment thereof and in which- Figure lis a view in sectional elevation of a machine constructed in accordancewith o-ne embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of aportion of the machine illustrated in Fig. l; Fig. 3 is a sectional Viewon line 3 3 of Fig. l; Fig. l is a sectional view on line l 4 of Fig. l;and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of the mechanism enteringinto my improved structure.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughoutthe different figures.

The structure, as I have preferably embodied it, includes a hopper linto which the cotton, as it is gathered from the field, is dischargedin any suitable way. The bottom of this hopper is in the form of gratebars 2 between which comparatively wide spaces intervene and below whicha roller 3 is mounted to rotate in a clockwise direction as illustratedin Fig. l. This roller is com posed of two sections, one enveloping theother, the inner section being in the form of a shaft while the outersection is formed of a plurality of rings 4i as illustrated most clearlyin Fig. 5, the adjacent faces of adjacent rings being provided withteeth receiving recesses 6. Teeth 7 are disposed within the recesses G,these teeth being provided with inner heads 8 that are disposed asillustrated in Figs. t and 5. lIhe free ends of the teeth aresuccessively passed through the grate bar spaces and engage the cottonin the hopper and draw it through the gra-te bar spaces whereby the massof cotton is sufficiently redistributed to enable the cotton to be movedtoward the narrower end of the passage in which the carding teeth, to bedescribed, have action upon the cotton for the purpose of abstractingthe cotton tufts from the mass of cotton and foreign material. Thegrate'bars 2 are desirably formed at their left .hand ends asillustrated in Fig. 1 to prevent the revolving teeth from carrying anycotton back to the hopper, the left hand ends of these bars 2 closelyapproaching the cylinder from which the teeth projectJ and operating tostrip cotton from the cylinder that may otherwise cling thereto.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the cotton is depositedupon a traveling belt 81 driven in any suitable way. The upper stretchof this traveling belt constitutes the lower wall .of the passage waywhich has been heretofore mentioned, when `such passage way issubstantially horizontally disposed but to which disposition of thepassage way I do not wish tobe limited. The upper stretch of thistraveling belt S1 transfers the cotton to be passed beneath a cardingbelt 9 that slopes the hopper and converges stretch of the belt 81 atthe left. The elements Sl Vand 9, where they oppose each other,constitute opposite walls ofa passage way through which the cotton, thatis to be cleaned, is passed. The carding belt9 travels in a directionvopposite to that in which the conveyer belt Slftr'avels and thetelet-hof the carding belt gradually approach the belt S1 toward the dischargeend of the passage way in which the cotton undergoing the cleaningprocess is passed. The teeth of the carding belt that firstv encounterthe cotton abstract the uppermost tufts of cotton, the succeeding Yteethgradually abstractin'g the tufts of cotton that lie closer to the beltS1, the teeth of the carding belt being of such a nature as to enablethe yc'ottofnrtufts to adhere thereto while permitting the 'leaves andother foreign matterY to fall away, this result being promoted owing tothe fact that Y the` heavier foreign material travels in one directionwhile the removed cotton tufts travel in the reverse direction. Theyremoval of the leaves and other foreign niatteris promoted by airsuctiony which causes them 'to adhere closely to the upper stretchof thebelt so that this beltv stretch'may readily discharge the same vfrom thepassage way in which the cleaning operation has 'occurred. To this endthe upper stretch of the belt desirably rides over a cavity that isclosed except at the top, and which is .partially closed at the top by abelt which is provided with apertures l0 therethrough for the purpose ofpermitting air to be sucked downwardly. A 'suction pipe l1 communicateswithtlie space below the upper stretch of the belt and serves vto. drawthe air through the apertures 10, To, hold the `upper belt stretch inits proper level a number of ribs l2 are disposed longitudinally beneathand in contact with the under surface of the upper belt stretch. Thecotton upwardly toward. toward the upper present a stretch to that hasbeen removed by the carding belt 9 is carried toward the right and thenupwardly on the upper inclined stretch of the belt to the brush cylinder18 whose bristles serve to brush the cotton from the carding teeth ofthe carding belt, the brush I3 serving to discharge the removed cottonupon a conveyer belt 14 that may be driven in any suit-able way.

I'Vhile I have herein shown and particularly described the preferredembodiment of my invention, I do not wish to be limited to the precisedetails of construction shown as changes may readily be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent the following :d

l. A cotton cleaner having a taperingcotton receiving passage; a beltcarrying teeth projecting into the passage and mounted to the oppositeside of the passage that slopes away from this oppositefside of thepassage from the narrower to the broader end of the passage whereby theproximity of the teeth with respect to the side ofthe passage voppositethe same increases toward the narrower end of the passage; means ,foreffect-ing the travel of the belt to cause the teeth to move whilewithin the passage from the narrower to the broader end of the passage;and a conveyer belt having a stretch which definesr the side of thepassageopposite said teeth, there being means whereby this stretch ofthe belt is moved fronithe broader toward the narrower end of thepassage.

2. p A cotton cleaner havinga tapering cotton receiving passage providedwith teeth projecting into the passage; means for veffecting the travelof said teeth while projecting in said passage from the narrower endtoward the broader end of said passage, the teeth having a mountingserving to cause the proximity of the teeth with respect to the oppositeside of the passage to increase toward the narrower end of said passage;and a conveyer belt having a. stretch which defines the Vside of thepassage opposite said teeth, there being means whereby this stretch ofthe belt is moved from the broader toward the narrower end of thepassage.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe Vmy name this tenth day ofNovember A. D., 19M.

JOHN I?. APPLEBY.

lVitnesses H. S. MURPHY, A J. E. BURME'ISTER.

Copies of this patent :nay be obtained forV five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

